The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 1523

Joshua lowered his eyes, hiding the darkness within them.

"Okay."

...

Two days later, Neville arrived with Marvin to meet Stella and Joshua. Marvin, much like Keen O'Brien, idolized Joshua, constantly calling out "Mr. Joshua" this and "Mr. Joshua" that whenever he saw him.

Watching Joshua listen patiently to Marvin, Stella felt a strange sense of destiny. It was hard to believe that Marvin and Joshua were actually related. Then again, with so many Gardners, they were probably distant relatives, barely connected at all. Otherwise, Joshua would have at least heard of Elaine.

"Star, are you listening?" A deep, magnetic voice sounded beside her.

Stella turned to see Neville looking at her with concern.

"You seem a bit distracted today, Star. Is something on your mind?"

Stella had no intention of telling Neville that Joshua was a Gardner.

Given Grandma Connolly's attitude, she knew how much she disliked them. And with Neville's devotion to his sister, who had been imprisoned and died in sorrow, leaving behind a three-year-old child, he likely wouldn't be fond of the Gardners either.

As for Joshua, even though he was a Gardner, he seemed to be on the fringes and shouldn't be dragged into it.

"No, it's nothing," Stella said casually. "It's just that when you mentioned the art exhibition, it reminded me of someone."

Neville was curious. "Oh? Who did you think of?"

Stella smiled. "A girl from my university days who once bought one of my pieces. You could tell she loved art and had a very unique perspective on it. For some reason, she was forced to give it up. But even so, you could still feel her passion for painting whenever she spoke about it."

Hearing this, Neville realized, "It sounds like she went through something similar to you, Star."

Just as they were talking about 'L,' Stella's phone vibrated.

Neville knew that while Stella seemed approachable, very few people ever truly got close to her.

The four of them soon arrived at the exhibition. The gallery was sparsely populated, feeling almost deserted.

Stella found it strange. "Isn't this exhibition supposed to feature works by famous artists? I heard it even includes some rare, historical pieces. Why are there so few people here?"

Stella walked over to one of the paintings.

She recognized it instantly as the final work of a renowned European oil painter from the last century. It wasn't a replica; it was the original.

Stella had even read news about this painting before; it had supposedly sold at auction for a price in the tens of billions. The figure was so high it seemed absurd.

And now, a masterpiece worth that much was just casually placed in an inconspicuous corner?